Martin Hill
libertyfight.com
January 10, 2014
As if REASON Magazine’s Dec. 6 article promoting ‘coercive vaccination’ wasn’t bad enough, the rag labeled actress Jenny McCarthy as an ‘ENEMY OF FREEDOM’ for daring to question the establishment line on vaccines. As if he worked for a government progaganda outfit, Reason writer Ronald Bailey takes a swing at “People who don’t wish to take responsibility for their contagious microbes” and asserts that people have no right to refuse vaccines, since, as Bailey contends, they are endangering others. Excerpts:
Refusing Vaccination Puts Others At Risk -A pragmatic argument for coercive vaccination 12/6/13″A significant proportion of Americans believe it is perfectly all right to put other people at risk of the costs and misery of preventable infectious diseases… There would be no argument against allowing people to refuse vaccination if they and their families would suffer alone the consequences of their foolhardiness… But that is not the case in the real world.”
“…people who refuse vaccination are asserting that they have a right to “swing” their microbes at other people. There is no principled libertarian case for their free-riding refusal to take responsibility for their own microbes…People who refuse vaccination for themselves and their children are free-riding off herd immunity. Anti-vaccination folks are taking advantage of the fact that most people around them have chosen the minimal risk of vaccination, thus acting as a firewall protecting them from disease. But if enough refuse, the firewall comes down and other people get hurt.”
It turns out that this latest pro-vaccine swill isn’t new. In their 7/10/13 article 45 ENEMIES OF FREEDOM, Reason listed actress Jenny McCarthy at number 28. Forcing readers to wade through seven very slow-loading pages for a single article, (which might be why this never got much attention,) they finally include the snide swipe at the actress. (A one-page printable version of the article is here, in case you need kindling):
“A second-string actress who has managed to stay in the limelight by promoting the bogus theory that vaccines cause autism, McCarthy traffics in pseudoscience and fear. Partly as a result of her widely publicized yet scientifically ignorant pronouncements, hundreds of thousands of fearful parents have needlessly endangered the health and lives of their children.”
Even worse, out of the 45 “enemies of freedom,” REASON chose to single-out McCarthy for special attention and put her on the Magazine cover standing next to Communist dictator Mao Tse-Tung, whom they point out “killed at least 35 million Chinese citizens.” A naked-looking cartoon version of McCarthy is hiding behind a sign opposing “Vaccine Toxins.”
Ironically, Reason begins the piece stating “What unites them is their active effort to control individuals rather than allow them free choice, to wield power recklessly rather than act on the recognition that the stuff inherently corrupts, and to popularize lies in a world that’s desperate for truth.”
Of course Reason included Osama bin Laden at number four on the ’45 enemies of freedom’ list, promoting the standard US Gov® position. (After all, boogeyman Osama did 9/11 from his cave and ‘hates us for our freedom,’ right?)
4. Osama bin Laden: His desire to impose an Islamic caliphate marks the late terrorist as decidedly anti-liberty. But Osama bin Laden’s real crime against freedom was masterminding the murderous 9/11 terror attacks, which not only slaughtered nearly 3,000 people, but also inspired the U.S. government to react with overseas wars, the PATRIOT Act, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Transportation Security Administration. It is thanks in no small part to bin Laden that the United States is far less free.
To their credit, Reason includes many others who LibertyFight.com wholeheartedly agrees should be on the list, including Dick Cheney, Dianne Feinstein, AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio, retired LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, Newt Gingrich, Henry Kissinger, Pol Pot, Michael Bloomberg, and actor Steven Seagal.
PoliceStateUSA.com has an extensive analysis of the REASON pro-vaccine stance in their excellent article Reason Magazine advocates forced vaccination.. and forced quarantine:
A Pattern of Pseudo-Libertarianism: Bailey’s mutterings would hold little weight if he was just one of the many internet bloggers pushing for state mandates and collectivism. But Bailey should know better. Worse, the magazine that many look to as a standard-bearer for libertarianism should know better. Not only did Bailey’s screed make it past the editors and get published, but a second blog post appeared on the website as a promotion of his work. “Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey explains why there is no principled libertarian case for vaccine refusal,” states the notice. Furthermore, on the Reason website, the article is tagged with the keywords “Libertarian” and “Libertarian History/Philosophy,” meaning that this article on forced vaccines will forever appear under searches for the two tags. Is this really how Reason wants to represent libertarianism?
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